KVR Audio

xalama qo · Post by **xalama qo** » Thu Oct 10, 2013 9:29 am

I've always liked the look and sound of these... got the demos installed... but I haven't given them any 'real world' use. So I'm just wondering from those who have them and use them a lot(or not) what the general impression is now that they're old news?
Do you keep them for master bus only, or have you found any sweet spots for tracks etc..?
Thanks dudes.

xalama qo · Post by **xalama qo** » Thu Oct 10, 2013 5:26 pm

nobody?

Eddie TX · Post by **Eddie TX** » Thu Oct 10, 2013 5:47 pm

xalama qo wrote:nobody?

I think the Vari Comp is the star of the show ... I still use it for vox and strings in particular. Also good for some drums -- it's one of those plugs that I try on anything, since it sometimes works the best.

The EQs are OK, but IMHO the Passive doesn't hold a candle to the UAD MP, and I never really got into the Enhanced EQ -- there are just too many other excellent EQ choices these days.

Cheers,
Eddie

yevster · Post by **yevster** » Thu Oct 10, 2013 5:51 pm

I think the Passive EQ is frigging amazing. I havne't gone through and compared it against every other Manley Massive Passive emulation, I just love what it does to my tracks.

Haven't started using Varicomp regularly, but only because I haven't had the chance to spend time fully exploring its tonal qualities.

BERFAB · Post by **BERFAB** » Thu Oct 10, 2013 5:58 pm

Eddie TX wrote:
xalama qo wrote:nobody?
I think the Vari Comp is the star of the show ... I still use it for vox and strings in particular. Also good for some drums -- it's one of those plugs that I try on anything, since it sometimes works the best.

The EQs are OK, but IMHO the Passive doesn't hold a candle to the UAD MP, and I never really got into the Enhanced EQ -- there are just too many other excellent EQ choices these days.

Cheers,
Eddie

If Vari Comp is the one with the "Glue" preset, then I do wind up using it quite a bit. I believe it might be trying to approximate the feel of a certain other plug by the same name. Regardless, I think it sounds quite good.

FWIW, I thought I saw a mention in CM recently too, giving it a thumbs up. Not 100% sure though.

-B

drakem · Post by **drakem** » Thu Oct 10, 2013 6:27 pm

Passive just kills anything on the Dialogue Buss!.
I've never been able to boost voice/vocal channel this amount! I'm sometimes thinking that I must be deaf because I can push 7, 8kHZ on a tuby lavalier channel with 10-12 db

. That SHOULD be wrong, but the A/B check says is OK

So for me there is nothing at the moment touching this baby.

xalama qo · Post by **xalama qo** » Fri Oct 11, 2013 11:06 am

Thanks for all the replies guys. I've played with the Vari-Comp the most, and I really liked it on drum bus. It has a slow attack time, which kinda goes against the grain for drum usage. Most guys seem to squash the heck out of their drums with fast attack times, then do some NY type technique to get the transients' punch back in there. But I found Vari-Comp handles drums really nicely (for my tastes), with its slow attack, and it also has a dry/wet mix knob if you really need it. Of course, it's all down to taste... whether you like what you're hearing or not

The Passive EQ was also quite notably sweet from what I remember. I haven't played with the demos for some time, because I can't afford them atm, and it's too frustrating playing with stuff you can't afford.

There's also been a wave of new compressor releases since then, Overtone DSP, IK, SKNote, just about everyone... so I'm just interested in people's opinions in light of the newer releases too.

I (un)fortunately(?) haven't been able to check out NI's Solid Mix Series, as that's Win 7 and above only, and my Win 7 laptop screen has gone futz.
Most probably a good thing..

4damind · Post by **4damind** » Fri Oct 11, 2013 11:38 am

I don't like them for mastering.. at the end of the day I bought the Brainworx bx_digital (I was interested for this M/S stuff the Passive EQ has too)
The Vari Comp is not bad but I always own the Softube/NI vintage comps which are IMO more versatile.
NI jumps a bit lately on the vintage hype so there is not this "wow, amazing" and people are a bit more picky. The Premium Tubes Series are not bad but I have not much usage for them.

Aiynzahev · Post by **Aiynzahev** » Fri Oct 11, 2013 4:28 pm

I enjoy them a lot, although I don't own the passive yet, I have demoed it a lot.

The enhanced EQ can always do "something" for me, usually not with bass, but in other areas, but the Varicomp is gorgeous. I could put it on every track if I had to and it would still sound good. But I've found it to be a real CPU hog.

electro · Post by **electro** » Fri Oct 11, 2013 5:24 pm

NI need to leave the FX alone and focus their resources on more projects like Monark.

lacandon · Post by **lacandon** » Sat Oct 12, 2013 6:03 pm

They are great really digging the passive eq and the vary mu with a bit mojo from Henry Olonga its sounds very nice and wide..Ni Passive eq is not excatly whats the hw Massive Passive sounds like but is very good imo ..

V0RT3X · Post by **V0RT3X** » Sat Oct 12, 2013 6:05 pm

I used to own them, i ended up selling them. I don't think i can't do anything with them that I can do with DMG Audio stuff.

Of course YMMV

xalama qo · Post by **xalama qo** » Sat Oct 12, 2013 9:35 pm

Thanks for the replies guys

Being a fan Mr AZ's productions(above), I'm glad to hear he enjoys the VariComp... he's a fussy dude when it comes to compressors.

I have T-Racks Deluxe, and the White and Black comps, and love them. I also prefer the fact(?) that they're cleaner than the NI versions of the 76 and LA2A, because the input transformer behaviour wasn't modelled. (Apparently this has been 'corrected' in the CS versions?)

But the Premium Tube bundle, compressor particularly, I like a lot. It has some sort of fun x-factor to it, hard to describe. I suppose despite its limitations, I just found it really easy to tweak a couple of knobs and then sit back and smile.
A real immediate-gratification kinda comp.

xalama qo · Post by **xalama qo** » Sat Oct 12, 2013 9:54 pm

electro wrote:NI need to leave the FX alone and focus their resources on more projects like Monark.

I agree that more synths from NI on par with Monark would be awesome, but I don't think much development time is being 'wasted' on the latest family of FX. They've all been coded by Softube, so at most NI have spent time working on great looking GUIs, and possibly integrating the algorithms into their framework yada yada... that's where I'm out of my depth, as a non-coder, so I won't pretend to know how it all comes together.

As far as I know they have a specialist GUI team, Mr Mokafix and another guy or 2, but the Monark synth development and Softube FX development don't encroach on each other at all AFAIAA.
On the contrary, Monark's development resulted in an amazing spin-off in Driver. No Softube logo on that. Driver just needs midi input and it's a synth in itself!

Kindred · Post by **Kindred** » Sun Oct 13, 2013 12:01 am

I sold mine after doing a quick test of Vari comp up against Slate VBC's Mu compressor - the Slate sounded damn close to my Thermionic Phoenix and the vari comp didn't. Plus the Vari comp broke up a lot quicker than the Slate in my experience (albeit brief). I didn't think these were on par with other Softube stuff IMO

Ok, now that all the hype has died down... what do you think of NI's Premium Tube Series?